PREPOSITIONAL PHRASES

What is a PHRASE? After midnight on the roof A phrase is a group of words that acts as a single part of speech (like an adjective) that does not contain both a subject and a verb. It is a fragment of a sentence, so it cannot express an idea on its own. After midnight on the roof with a Ukranian bullfighter

What’s a PHRASE? After midnight, Egor's mother was dancing. After midnight, Egor's mother was on the roof dancing. After midnight, Egor's mother was on the roof dancing with a Ukranian bullfighter.

What’s a PHRASE? Felcity stared. Surprised by the intensity of her disgust, Felicity stared. Surprised by the intensity of her disgust, Felicity stared at the cockroach. Surprised by the intensity of her disgust, Felicity stared at the cockroach scurrying across her omelet.

Prepositions Most prepositions are difficult to define: of, in, off, by, through, between, etc.

Most of the time, prepositions indicate location

Prepositional Phrases Prepositional Phrases function as adjectives or adverbs in a sentence. They are formed like this: preposition + optional modifiers + noun, pronoun, or gerund (running) Example: over the rainbow (over = preposition) + (the = article) + (rainbow = noun)

Prepositional Phrases In the beginning Before the fall After the brutal fight At school Down the aisle Across the street Inside your ear Outside the house Between two girls By chewing Behind the scenes On the wooden table By the sea Under the couch Around the bend Down in the sand trap Into the dark woods Against the wind Near the mouse Through the tunnel To school Like Larry’s uncle Except my friend Over the rainbow Up the rough river Without a paddle With anger Toward the door

Notice – prepositional phrases usually end with a noun or pronoun, which is the OBJECT of the preposition After the brutal fight Inside your wax-filled ear Outside the blue house Between two girls Beside you With me

A prepositional phrase can open a sentence Without help, Janie made this message for Santa. Is this prepositional phrase working as an adjective or adverb? What is the object of the preposition? Notice: the comma offsets the prepositional phrase

A prepositional phrase can close a sentence We ate corn dogs and drank root beer floats after the baseball game. Is this prepositional phrase working as an adjective or adverb? What is the object of the preposition? Notice NO comma is needed

A prepositional phrase can split the main subject and verb All the puppies, except those that had been trained, pooped everywhere! Is this prepositional phrase working as an adjective or adverb? What is the object of the preposition? Notice: commas offset the prepositional phrase

A sentence can have consecutive prepositional phrases Are these prepositional phrase working as adjectives or adverbs? What are the objects of the prepositions? We saw this holiday tree in the mall, on some guy’s head. 1 2

A sentence can have consecutive prepositional phrases 1 2 In grandma’s attic, under the window, in a cardboard box between two garbage cans, we found these scary Santa Clauses. 3 4 Are these prepositional phrase working as adjectives or adverbs? What are the objects of the prepositions?

Prepositional phrases can be used within other phrases My aunt and uncle, the goofballs in this picture, love immature shenanigans. “the goofballs in this picture” is what type of phrase? Is this prepositional phrase working as an adjective or adverb? What is the object of the preposition? So… “in this picture” is a prepositional phrase within an appositive phrase!